The present invention relates to chewing gum compositions and manufacturing methods. In particular, the invention relates to methods of optimizing gum formulations for texture and processability characteristics, and, once optimized, producing gum compositions with the optimized formulation.
One difficulty encountered in reformulating chewing gum compositions to implement various desired ingredient changes, or in developing new formulations, is that the final texture of the new compositions and the processability characteristics associated with their manufacture cannot be determined without actually making sample batches of the gum. This is due to the fact that gum compositions are quite complex systems, containing a gum base (which in itself is usually made from several ingredients), bulking and sweetening agents, plasticizers, fillers, flavors, colors and numerous other ingredients.
Thus, when one ingredient is changed, even one present in small amounts such as the flavor, it is often necessary to make up repeated sample batches of gum using the new ingredient, adjusting the levels of other ingredients in each batch until a gum formulation is reached which has the desired properties. Not only must the final gum texture and other properties be acceptable, but the processability characteristics of the gum should be such that the gum can be made using existing machinery and production techniques.
A major reformulation is very costly and time consuming. To reduce costs, new formulations are generally made up on a small scale while working out an acceptable formulation, and then the formulation is further refined on production scale equipment until its processability is acceptable.
The aforementioned problems are particularly acute in the case of formulating a sugarless gum which is to be processed using the same equipment used to manufacture and wrap a sugar gum.
For example, a sugar chunk gum is usually processed by passing the formulated gum through an extruder which forms a rope. The extrusion requires the gum to be very pliable, which is accomplished by heating the gum before or during the extrusion to 120.degree.-140.degree. F. Before the gum can be cut into chunks and wrapped, it is generally stretched and sized to reduce the extruded rope diameter, and must be cooled. The cooling and sizing is typically done in a cooling tunnel. To save space, the path through the tunnel is circuitous or serpentine in nature. In order to follow this path without breaking, the gum rope must still be flexible when it cools.
To account for variation in production rates between the extruder and the wrapping equipment, conventional chunk gum processing uses a "snaking table" after the cooling tunnel. The snaking table acts as a buffer, filling with gum rope when the wrapping speed is less than the extrusion speed, the excess being depleted when wrapping speeds are increased. It is imperative that the gum rope remain cohesive on the snaking table. Any break in the rope will require manual intervention to splice the rope or refeed it into the cutting and wrapping equipment.
The softness and flexibility required in the cooling tunnel and on the snaking table must be coupled with firmness if the gum is to be successfully cut and wrapped. If the gum is too soft or sticky, it will be smeared by the cutting equipment and be impossible to wrap. It is believed that because their gums do not have proper processability characteristics, some manufacturers of sugarless chunk gum cut the extruded rope into lengths and allow it to cool and set to the proper cutting and wrapping consistency. This procedure requires splicing the lengths before feeding the rope into the cutting equipment, a time consuming and expensive procedure.
Besides the difficulties in formulating sugarless gums for manufacturing processability, the formulations must also have proper softness and non-sticky texture characteristics in its finished state, with proper sweetness and flavor release attributes, to be acceptable to a majority of consumers. Optimizing both this final texture and the processability at the same time has been a time consuming and expensive task.